What is everyones rule around when a players contract is up. How does that player get a new team? We are trying to think of a way for the original team to be able to sign him at "Fair value" without going through the Free Agent draft. Anyone got any suggestions?

I'm in two contract leagues. In both, we can franchise tag a player on an expiring contract (at the average cost of the 5 highest paid players at the position), or transition tag (owner has rights to the player at the same price or $1 higher of the winning bid at the free agent draft).

My contract cap leagues do something similar. 1 has a franchise tag that cost faab to use, and therefore you get faab and draft pick compensation. Another league does not use a franchise tag, both allow owners to match the high bid (through auction) on a player. In my salary cap leagues, you can have a franchise player (at avr top 5 salary) and all free agent (vet players) go through auction. Both styles have rookie only drafts.

I run one contract league and there are two options we have. You can franchise tag a players at a 25% increase in salary for one year which can only be used once per player, and one tag per team per off-season. We also have a one year extension which is also at an increase of 25% and technically could be applied forever to a player.

In our league you have the option to extend when the player has 1 year left on their contract (extension must be in place by the end of July). Anyone who reaches 1 August without an extension will become a free agent at the end of the season. Extension costs are based on a) the best performing year the player had in the last 3 and b) the average contract value of players in their appropriate tier + a percentage increase. So for example, a WR who was top 5 at least once in the last 3 years would have an extension cost of the average of the top 5 paid WRs + 15%. A WR who's best season was 11th top scorer would cost the average of the 11-20th highest WR salaries +7%.

Any player picked up in free agency on or after 1 August (including in-season) can only receive a 1 year contract, and so can't be extended. However, they are eligible for a waiver tag, which allows the team that picked them up to give them a second year at a cost in line with extension. Once tagged, they can be extended for the extension costs of a player in the next tier up. If they are already in tier 1 then the cost of the extension will be tier 1+10%.

Sounds complicated but we have a spreadsheet setup that calculates the costs automatically.